The Ticket CLOSED
by ShadowedLamp
Summary: Saved by General Iroh from starvation, Rong Yu longs to repay him in some way. The only thing she can think is to serve him somehow, so she stows away on Prince Zuko's ship in preparation to ask for the favor of giving the general her service. She is thrown a curve when her attraction for the Prince becomes stronger than she expected, but can't decide which side she is on. [Hiatus]
1. Messy

Boards creaked underfoot. The smell of salt and unwashed bodies wafted on the air like an autumn breeze. Couldn't help but love the smell, it meant life. Right now it meant the hope of moving forward.

It had been nearly a week since I'd snuck on this ship, but I wanted to give myself a better chance of success before I was kicked off. Assuming they decided to kick me off. But, so far so good. It wasn't too hard to stow away on a ship where everyone wore a solders uniform, including a helmet. It didn't hurt that Prince Zuko never bothered to socialize with his men. In truth, it seemed to me that that was the core of his weakness. After all, if you know your enemy and know yourself, you'll win all your battles. If you do not know your enemy, but know yourself, you will win most of them. The Prince didn't know "himself," because he thought himself too important to know his men. Typical. Or perhaps there was another reason, perhaps he was afraid of his men? After watching his behavior, I had concluded that it was likely a combination of the two.

But, there was time to think of that later. Now, I was ready to turn myself in. I hadn't bothered to take my stolen uniform off. All I had on underneath was some plain clothes; a long crimson shirt, and baggy, worn, tan slacks. Not much to meet a Prince in, however, I didn't have any money and new clothes weren't an option.

A week was plenty of time to learn my way around the ship, as well as many of the men's activities. I was probably the only female on this thing, ample reason to leave the ill-fitting uniform on. I was still small, so I tried to keep out of General Iroh's way. He, unlike the Prince, would notice someone a head shorter than all the men, one who hadn't been on board before docking on Zhou's doorstep.

There was a reason this guy was a general.

I made my way down to the largest room, the one that served as the recreation area for anyone not on duty. There, as I had predicted, the general was playing a game of Pi-Sho. I wondered if there was any time to back out of this, but shut the thoughts down immediately. If there had been any way out of it, it was before getting on the ship. As a stowaway, I owed it to the General to turn myself in. I stepped hesitantly up to the Pi-Sho table, and cleared my throat, which, for some unknown reason, had suddenly become very dry.

"Sir?" I blurted out, unable to stop myself. This was it….

General Iroh looked up. "Yes?"

General Iroh was maybe a head shorter than me, and quite round. He seemed like a jolly old man, and was maybe old enough to be my father or grandfather. He had a nice, friendly temperament, and gained the men's respect by giving them his in return.

"I-I um, regret to inform you that a stowaway has been detected on this ship." I stumbled through my sentence, face red. Good thing I still had on this helmet, even though it made my voice sound tinned.

"I see." The general sighed, looking down at his board. I caught a calculating look on his face for only a sliver of a second before he stood up. "Let's deal with this in my quarters. I'll go fetch the Prince."

"Yes sir." I responded automatically. My heart raced. I had known that he'd bring in the Prince, but I had hoped that I was wrong. I'd just have to muddle my way through this with the Prince looking on. I'd need his approval to stay on this ship. Without it, I was down to the prison cells in the hold, or on the shore of the next island we came to.

I knew my way to his quarters, but I followed him anyway. He paused to let me inside before continuing down the hall to fetch the Prince.

I closed the door behind him, and began to take off the armor that I'd been wearing piling it all in a heap. On a small mirror erected on the wall, I caught a glimpse of my reflection. Not only were my clothes ragged and dirty, but my face was coated in a layer of grime, and my hair clung to my face and neck, matted with dirt and sweat from wearing the helmet, and not brushing it for quite some time. My nails were chipped and dirty, and my overall appearance was slovenly, if not disturbing. I had taken off the enormous boots that came with the uniform, and since I didn't own any shoes, I was barefoot.

I was startled out of my thoughts by the door slamming open and both the Prince and the General entering.

"When I find this stowaway uncle, you can bet that I'm going to make an example of him!" Zuko huffed.

This was not a surprise. Zuko was maybe a couple months younger than me, but he was about my age. His head was shaved, except for a small patch that contained his ponytail. Also he had an enormous scar over his left eye. I didn't know the story behind that one, but if I was going to guess, he picked a fight with the wrong person. His temperament was almost exactly opposite his uncle, the general's. He was dark and angry. No matter how good something was, he could always find something wrong with it. But all the same, he was strong. It wasn't just how muscular he was, although he was quite muscular. He had the air of a survivor, and those are hard to find amongst princes.

"Sorry to interrupt, but uh… the stowaway is a her." I interjected, before he had caught sight of me. Immediately his gaze snapped to me. As he gave me a once over, I felt a tad embarrassed. "Sorry," I said apologetically. "I didn't get a chance to wash up before turning myself in."

"Are you making fun of me?" The Prince's voice was dangerously low.

I shook my head, mock seriousness taking over my expression. "No sir! I couldn't figure out how to bathe without taking the uniform off, getting into the water off the boat, climbing back on and putting the armor off without being seen. You have my sincere apologies!" I saw his eyebrow twitch. His scowl had only been slightly menacing before, now it was murderous. I dropped to one knee, killing the mockery in my expression, and changing it to a solemn one. "My lord, please forgive me." I mumbled, becoming more respectful. "I had the audacity to stow away on your vessel, because I wanted to ask two favors of your uncle."

"What's your name?" the Prince barked, causing me to glare at the floor.

"I don't have one, my lord." I replied.

"How dare you think that you can stow away on my ship, and ask anything of anybody on here!" He was working himself into a rage. "What makes you think my uncle give you anything?"

I stood to my feet. "Because… He knows me." I turned to Iroh. "You probably don't remember though? It was a long time ago."

I grabbed the edge of my shirt, and began to pull it up.

"Are you undressing in front of me now?" The Prince was enraged. I saw fire flicker on the palm of both hands. It took an effort to tune him out.

I stopped pulling up my shirt about two inches above my navel, showing him a scar that stretched across my abdomen. "We met when you faced the last dragon."

Recognition flashed across his face. "Ah, you're right. I remember now."

I grinned. "You were the one that told me that everyone's ticket to the future is blank.* There's no way I can repay you."

General Iroh smiled, and seemed to relax. "You mentioned that you had two requests for me."

I dipped my head. "Yes sir." Kneeling on one knee again, I adopted the pose I had given the Prince before. "With the Prince's permission, I would be honored if you would allow me to serve you, until I can no longer be of any use to you!"

There was silence for a minute. "That is an unusual request…" General Iroh stated finally.

"That's ridiculous! You're a stow away! How do we know you're not a spy?" Prince Zuko demanded.

I turned back toward the Prince. "Sir… He saved my life years and years ago, and then he put me in a home where I was educated and treated well. I would never betray him. Or you."

"What was your other request?" General Iroh asked gently.

"Again with your own consent and Prince Zuko's permission, I wanted to beg you to teach me firebending!" I bowed my head, staring hard at the floor. Both requests were selfish, in a way, and now that I had asked, I was immensely embarrassed, especially whenever I took my appearance into account.

"You're a firebender?" Zuko was incredulous.

"I have been able bend a little bit on my own since I was young. It grew stronger that day…. The day the General faced the last dragon… But I cannot refine it on my own, and I haven't been able to find a master willing to teach me anything else." I turned back to the general. "Please, I don't want to take up any more of your time or energy, but if I could be present while you instructed the Prince, I would be more than honored."

"I don't mind." General Iroh shrugged his shoulders. "But the final decision rests with the Prince."

Prince Zuko had settled down, and was quieter than when he started. "I don't care. Just stay out of my way." He turned to go. "And find some way to take a bath. You're embarrassing to look at." He left, slamming the door behind him.

I stood to my feet, head still bowed. "Thank you, sir. I ask forgiveness for any offense I might have caused."

General Iroh shook his head. "It was no offense. Prince Zuko just needs some space. He's quite stressed from looking so hard for the Avatar."

I looked up. "Please forgive me for speaking frankly, but Commander Zhou… I think he plans to give you a rough time. I was hoping… You could keep me as a reserve. If there's some kind of emergency maybe I could help in some way."

"I will think about it." Iroh replied.

We stood in silence for a moment before it occurred to me that I was in his bedroom, and that I probably stank. As Zuko had articulated, I needed a bath. "Please excuse me. I need to…find some way to carry out the Prince's instructions." I mumbled.

"It's no problem. Perhaps you'll play a game of Pi-Sho with me when you are finished?" Iroh asked.

"I would love that, if you're not put out by playing with a poor opponent." I answered. I really did enjoy Pi-Sho, but I needed more practice before I could be any good.

"Then I look forward to a game." the old man smiled, and that was the last I saw of him after I left his quarters.

Taking a bath proved more difficult than I'd expected. Taking a swim would have been nice, had I been able to climb back on, but the sides of the ship were smooth, and I wasn't exactly adept at rope climbing. In the end, I found a bucket, and used a long rope to lower it over the side of the ship. After I'd manage to pour it over myself about ten times, my arms had gotten tired from pulling it up over and over. After pouring it over myself fifteen times, the dirt had washed out of my face, and my clothes were brighter. After pouring it over myself twenty times, I felt good as new. After this, I went to a relatively unpopulated area of the deck, and laid down in the sun to dry off. I felt so good that I accidentally went to sleep.

It was cold when I woke up.

The breeze from earlier was blowing through again, but the temperature had dropped about twenty degrees, and the stars were out. There were so many up in the sky, it was bright with them. The swirled together in a sparkly mixture and made everything else seem like a work of art. The ship. The sea…

I sat up, wishing I had a cloak or something. It really was chilly, and I wasn't used to it. Eventually, I pushed myself enough to look around for something. There were a few lifeboats on board, and they had tarps over them. I pulled the tarp off of one, and wound it about my shoulders, blocking the worst of the wind from me.

I wasn't really curious, but most of the men were below deck, sleeping, it was an ideal time to walk around, and truthfully, my back hurt from laying in one position for so long.

As I walked around a bit, I spied the Prince at the front of the deck, holding on to the railing. He seemed to be thinking about something, but from the look on his face, I doubted it was pleasant. He would never thank me for anything, but he might be happier if I distracted him for a moment.

I slipped as quietly as I could toward him, wondering what exactly to say.

"You look less disgusting now." The Prince commented, not turning around.

"I wanted to thank you for allowing me to stay on. I know that you like strict discipline, so allowing someone like me to stow away probably goes against your nature…" I grab the railing with the hand not holding the tarp on me.

"Don't think I'm going to let you slack off. If you can't pull your own weight around here, I'll change my mind and leave you at the next port." Zuko snapped.

"Yes sir. I promise, I'll work hard."

"And another thing; I know that you have some kind of connection to my uncle, but around here, you ask permission from me. You take my orders. If you have questions, you come to me. If your loyalty isn't absolute, I'm going to get rid of you before you can blink."

"I look forward to serving you." I replied. "You can be assured of my loyalty as well."

"Good." During this whole time the Prince hadn't bothered to look my way. He still didn't, but unless I was imagining it, he seemed to relax.

I turned away from him a little, looking out towards the horizon. We stood in silence, each of us preoccupied with our own thoughts. I almost missed it when Prince Zuko turned and walked towards me. For a second, I thought he'd walk right by, but then he stopped, put his hand in his pocket, and pulled out a key. "Here." He said, handing it to me. "You can sleep in the first prison cell. It'll give you some privacy while you stay here." Without waiting for an answer, he walked away, back towards his quarters. I felt some happiness begin to boil inside me a little bit. Impulsively I yelled after him, "Thank you!"

He didn't stop. He didn't turn around, respond, or acknowledge in any way that he'd heard me. But I knew he had.

I turned away from the railing, and headed down to the Prison Hold, where I would be sleeping for the next while.

Prince Zuko had given me two keys. The first opened the first door on the left of the long corridor that was the Prison Hold. The second opened the barred door in the cage that made up the cell. It was perfect really. If he wanted me, the Prince, or the General could come right in. However if some creep tried to get at me, they wouldn't be able to get into the cage. I'd make sure the door was locked good every night. You hear bad things about sailors after all.

I shut the outer door, went into the cage and locked the door. It was bare inside, but had a cot and two basins. I curled up on the cot with my tarp, and found that it was quite comfortable, although it probably wasn't meant to be. I had a lot to think about, so I didn't think that I would be able to get to sleep any time soon, but I drifted off within minutes of getting comfortable on the bed.

One of the downsides I should have foreseen, but didn't was the fact that there aren't usually windows in holding cells in the hold of a ship, and that my room was no exception. Naturally, this made it difficult to tell the time of day, and my internal clock has always been either broken or out of whack. As soon as I woke up, I immediately hoped that I hadn't overslept. The prince had been rather exact about the consequences of slacking.

Reaching for my keys, I tried to think of what exactly the prince wanted me to do on this ship. It wasn't like they hadn't gotten along without me before, so I had no idea what job he had in mind.

I felt relieved when I got above deck, and realized that it was still early in the morning. Not getting left on a deserted island today.

I looked around, feeling lost. This was still going to be tough, not having any real job. Just then, I noticed General Iroh sitting on the deck. He had a game of solitaire/Pi-Sho going, or something in that category. I nervously treaded up to him, unsure of what exactly to say. He spared me the trouble.

"My, you look nice." He commented, giving me a laid back smile.

I grinned. "I think your nephew was serious about me needing that bath. Not that I blame him."

"You never came to play Pi-Sho with me after." He mentioned, looking back to his game.

"I'm sorry." I apologized sheepishly. Pi-Sho had left my mind completely. "I kind of… forgot." My face reddened as I realized what had just happened. I had come here to serve Iroh, in an effort to repay that debt I owed him… And I'd forgotten to play his favorite game. No. I spent my time napping. How self centered was that?

He chuckled. "Don't worry, there's plenty of time to play my game still."

"T-Thank you!" I stammered gratefully.

"Was there something else you needed?" Iroh asked. I saw his hand move a tile from the right to the left.

"Oh.." I tried to remember what I'd wanted to ask him about. "Yes! Prince Zuko um… articulated that he would like me to be engaged in the ship's progress… I don't know what job he would have had in mind, so I thought you could give me some idea of where to work."

"Bad question." I reflected, once my hands were immersed in greasy water. By then it was too late.

Kitchen duty.

But then, I'd volunteered to serve, and this was a relatively straight forward job, so I didn't mind that much.

The cook was large and barrel chested. He appeared a little scary at first, but I learned quickly that he had a good temper, and that his food was… amazing. Indeed, he had a reputation for being able to take mere flour and water and making it so good that the Fire Lord himself would get down and beg. Well, maybe not, but close enough. Anyways, he didn't really need any help, but I could keep the kitchen clean and wash dishes. The crew was rather extensive, and the amount of bowls and spoons, not to mention plates, forks, and knives… well, it was extensive to say the least. Then there was the cooking utensils, and pots, pans, so forth and so on. The counters were dirty… The kitchen was understaffed, so naturally it made sense to start working here.

In the time that it had taken me to get used to working in the kitchen, we'd already docked, got supplies, and set back out.

"Hey girl." The cook grunted. It surprised me, he hadn't made a noise since we started out. "Take this to the prince, will you?"

"Sure."

"Don't forget to tell him, the Avatar was last seen on Kyoshi island."

"A-alright." I took off, holding the tray with smoked salmon on it. I knew vaguely that he was after the Avatar. He obsessed over the kid. I had yet to find out what kind of threat this Avatar posed to him.

It was dark inside the chamber where Prince Zuko and General Iroh usually ate. Why was it always dark where Zuko was? I supposed that light didn't seem to go with him. I could understand. I liked the dark, but I also liked the light too. He was still a kid, like I was. He should be able to enjoy it like that, but instead, he found himself growing up too quickly. A wave of melancholy hit me.

I set the salmon down on the table. "I was told to let you know… the Avatar has been hiding out on Kyoshi island."

The effect was immediate. "At last!" The prince snapped to his feet, forgetting his lunch. I stepped back in shock, just for a moment.

"Tell the captain to set our course for Kyoshi island!"

General Iroh looked longingly at the salmon. "If you're not planning to eat that…"

Zuko snatched up the tray. "I was going to save that for later!"

He looked over at me. "What are you still doing here?"

I snapped to attention. "Sir!" Immediately, I jumped for the door, and rushed to tell the captain to change course.

_**Author's Note:**_

_*** I do not own the phrase "Our Ticket to the Future is always blank." I borrowed it from Trigun, because I found it inspiring to me personally, and it seemed like something Iroh would say, and it embodied the spirit I want to get across in the story. The Title is based on this too. **_


	2. Thunder

The ship was fast, so we got there in no time at all. Zuko and some of his soldiers got on top of rhinos, and started off the ship, and into Kyoshi island. I had been left behind. Maybe the Prince still didn't trust me. It had only been one day after all.

I sighed, leaning over the rail.

"Is something wrong?"

I jumped, startled. "Left you behind too?" I asked, surprised. Iroh's sigh echoed mine.

"He wants to move quickly."

I gave him a flat look. "They're on rhinos."

"Yes, but he gets worried that he'll have to take care of me."

"But you're a general! Hasn't he seen you fight?" I asked incredulously.

"It is easy to underestimate people that are older than you." He looked down at the water, and I saw his expression change. He had fulfilled his serious quota, there was no need to be any more serious for now. Or maybe I'd trespassed too much into his personal affairs and he was too nice to let me know.

"How are you liking your new job?" He asked me.

I shrugged. "I don't dislike it. It's not bad." But that might sound negative… So I smiled. "I like how straight forward it is. It's nice."

It had only been a few minutes, still, there wasn't anything for it. I had no idea how long the prince would take on this mission. "Still up for that game of Pi-Sho?" I asked.

"That would be lovely. But do you think you could make some tea before we play?"

"I started it just before they left." I answered, feeling proud of myself. "It should be ready in a few minutes. Here, I'll go prepare it." I rushed over to the kitchen, pulled the tea kettle off of the stove, and poured it into a cup, making sure to strain out the tea leaves in the process.

"Here you go." I smiled, handing Iroh the cup of tea.

"Oh, many thanks." Iroh smiled and sat down at the board. "The guest has the first move."

I looked down at the board searchingly. So I'm the guest…

I picked up a tile and placed it on the board. "Thank you for the honor of allowing me to play with you." I said, settling back as he placed a countermove on the board.

"No, no, the honor is all mine. Not many people enjoy a simple game any more."

"I'm sure that you can find as many players as you need."

"My nephew likes to keep everyone occupied."

And so, we fell into a casual banter that matched the pace of the pieces that were laid down.

Unsurprisingly, I lost.

"I'm sure you will win if you… play again?" Iroh stated.

I grinned. "Don't be silly. No matter how many times I play, I'll never get to beat you!"

"Does that mean that you won't?" He looked vaguely disappointed.

I shook my head. "Why not? Maybe I'll learn something. Why don't you go first?"

And so, it started again. It wasn't that it wasn't fun. I enjoyed it, but probably not as much as the General. He seemed to get a real kick out of it. It was the only time he really displayed his keen wit. Why would he hide it like that?

"So while the men are out working, you two lazy slobs are playing a stupid game!" bellowed a voice from behind me. I jumped out of my seat and spun around.

"Uh… sir?" I mumbled.

Zuko grabbed the collar of my shirt, and pushed me up against the back wall. "I told you, if you slack off, I'll kick you off of this ship. You're this close to leaving it. I suggest you get back to work."

Somehow, this made me angry. "Look! There weren't any jobs! Even the cook doesn't need my help! It can't hurt to play just a couple of games-" I cut off as he glowered at me.

"Have you forgotten my instructions already? You don't ask for anyone else's orders, you ask for mine! I told you, GET TO WORK." He released his grip on my shirt and moved back. It wouldn't do any good to argue with him.

"Yes sir." I mumbled, bowing my head obediently.

"Then get out of my sight." He turned away, as if I wasn't worth his time anymore.

Since I was dismissed, I decided not to make a scene. I swallowed down the bile that was beginning to fill my mouth, and left, heading back for the kitchen.

"I'm sorry. Is there any more work for me?" I asked. Immediately, I wished I hadn't. The mountain of dishes next to the sink spoke for itself.

"More dishes." The cook said, giving a little shrug.

"I'll get right on it."

It was late evening by the time I was done with all of the tasks that I had for the day. Needless to say, I was exhausted. Perhaps Zuko was right. Maybe I needed to keep my mind on my own work. I had to do it to be allowed to stay so I could pay my debt. Why did he have to be so sour?

I walked out onto the deck. Some of the crew had already gone to bed, others were working on the deck, patrolling or sailing the ship.

I sat down for a moment, looking up at the soupy sky. Some stars peaked out behind the foggy looking clouds. I took a moment to assess how exhausted I was, then stood to my feet again. Maybe Zuko would be in a better mood if I admitted I was wrong to take a break. I didn't really regret it, but it would soothe his pride a bit.

I walked down the corridor, and knocked on the door of his room. There was no answer, so I opened the door.

"What do you want?" Zuko demanded.

"I wanted to apologize for earlier. It wasn't my place to speak back, and if I was going to take a break, I should have asked for permission. I'm sorry."

"Well-" Zuko looked absolutely stunned for a second. Perhaps accepting apologies wasn't normal for this guy. I felt a bit sorry for him. He must face a lot of lip, mostly just because of how young he was.

"Uh… See that it doesn't happen again!" it was halfhearted, at best. He was trying to remain in his normal state. I could see it on his face. His expression hardened.

"Sir… The lead on the avatar-"

He turned away from me. "It was nothing. It didn't work out."

I rubbed the back of my neck and looked at my bare feet. "I'm sorry. That must be rough."

"Yeah. Just when I think that I've caught up to him… He's just lucky. I won't underestimate him again."

"May I ask…. What happened the first time?" I hesitated, unsure of my own question.

"No." Zuko answered. He turned back to me and said harshly, "Now get out!"

I started to say something, then stopped. No sense doing something I'd have to apologize for later. "Yes sir. Good night." I turned and closed the door, walking back out into the corridor. I wasn't the only one. General Iroh was there too.

"Why were you going in there so late?" He asked, turning halfway to face me.

"I just wanted to apologize for not heeding his orders before." I answered, almost embarrassed to admit it.

"Well, do you want to join us for music night?" He asked.

I laughed. Iroh sure seemed to have this whole bit figured out. He could play board games, arrange music nights and such all without messing with his nephew's right to control the ship.

"Sure, that sounds interesting. I'm not actually a musician though."

"It's fine. Everyone should be able to enjoy the wonder of music." He gave one of his charming smiles, and headed on his way down the corridor. I followed him, curious what this music night would look like.

The music was mostly folk music and ballads. I hadn't heard anything like it. There were a couple guys who danced with each other, but I guessed that was because such music needs dancing, and there weren't any girls. Except me. They seemed used to it, because no one looked my way or said anything. There was a little open fire on deck, I suppose it worked because the ship was made of metal on this part of the deck. It was beautifully warm under the cloudy sky, and the music just added to my feeling of contentment. I wasn't the first one to head to bed, but I didn't wait until the end of the music. As happy as I was, I was tired too.

I walked toward the end where the prison hold entrance was, and noticed a shadow. It swiftly turned and disappeared, and I was left wondering about it. I shrugged it off and went below deck into my comfy prison cell. I was starting to like it here. It almost felt cozy… or perhaps I was simply too tired. I pulled up my tarp blanket and fell asleep.

It was a brisk day, the sky was a pale orange color. I could see people walking away in the distance. Somehow I knew that I needed to talk to them, but they were already far away, and still walking. I broke out into a run, but it was as if I was running in place. Nothing changed. They continued to go farther and farther away, and no matter how far I was running, I couldn't move. I looked down and saw a huge mud pit. Soon it started swirling around, dragging me under. I pushed as hard as I could to resist, but the more I tried to escape the harder it pulled me in. I woke up when the muddy water had advanced to my nose and mouth, thrashing around a bit, until I realized that the cot was creaking under me. Then I stopped moving, willing my heart to quit racing.

Everything was fine.

I was fine.

It was okay.

I got up and realized that even though I'd taken a salt water bath before, my appearance had deteriorated. Yes, I was not caked with dirt, and I was still moderately clean, but that didn't mean anything. My hair was back to being a black, matted wreck. Not that I'd bothered to do anything much with it, but this was bothersome. I tried to scrape it into some kind of arrangement, and braided it into two braids, but it didn't stay. I needed something to tie it with… Oh well.

I ignored it and moved on. Time to get to work.

It was worse, because I was late.

Hopefully Zuko wouldn't find out about this, because honestly, I couldn't afford that.

Not that he was so bad or anything. Honestly, it was kind of him to give me a prison cell to stay in. Not that I appreciated the insults, but he was a little bit spoiled. To be expected of Royalty. He was just a poor kid who didn't now how to deal with his life.

But enough for feeling sorry for the guy who was going to kick me off of a ship if I didn't do the dishes.

Apparently the crew didn't eat breakfast. I was fine with that. Less dishes, less greasy water that I wasn't allowed to waste. But that meant that preparations for lunch were already underway. The smell of fish was overpowering. I figured that even though the tip about Kyoshi didn't end up being helpful, it was at least a good place to get fish.

Even in the kitchen though, I could smell smoke like nothing else. As if the engine had overheated or something.

"Hey, do you know what the deal is with the smoke?" I asked.

The cook shrugged. "Beats me."

"Ah well. Thanks." I got to work, chopping vegetables and putting them all into a big pot.

"You can go on a lunch break now." The cook said, hanging up his apron.

"Thank you!" I chimed, racing out the door. Now, to find out about that weird smoke…

It didn't take me long to find Iroh and Zuko. They spent most of their time on the deck anyway, General Iroh would sometimes play his games up there, and Zuko was often looking for the Avatar.

"Hey! Prince Zuko, what's up with the smoke?" I asked, coughing as I got a throatful of it.

"I don't know." He refused to turn around when he answered me.

"We're near a famous prison. We will stop there and see if their mechanics can help us out." Iroh explained, clicking another tile into place.

"Can I look at it?" I asked, raising my eyebrows.

"You know something about mechanics?" Zuko sounded astonished, he turned and looked at me, a beautiful shocked expression on his face.

I shrugged. "No. But I have super good luck, so maybe I can fix it with good luck?"

"Forget it. You might make something else go wrong." Zuko said, turning back to his position with his spyglass, eyes open for the Avatar.

"Well, I thought I'd ask anyway." I grinned. "So, how close are we to the prison?"

"It'll be dark by the time we get there." Iroh answered, eyes still on his board.

"Well, I'm on lunch break… So I was wondering if you wanted to…" I started, and then I realized that I didn't want to ask. It would be embarrassing if he refused.

"What?" Zuko didn't look up.

"Um.. Spar. I haven't used my firebending in a long time." I confessed. "I thought… maybe it would help you relax a little bit."

"Why would I need to relax?" Zuko asked, voice extremely low, dangerously.

"I just thought that if you feel relaxed you'll be better prepared to fight the avatar."

"I don't feel like it."

"I see. I'm sorry, I didn't mean any offense."

He didn't bother to answer me, so I figured I was in the clear. Still, there was nothing more to do around here. I decided to run around for a little bit, just to exercise a little bit and to keep my legs from being so stiff.

I accidentally ran into a largeish man who was looking out over the sea. I fell backward onto my backside, and he was pushed farther into the rails. "I'm sorry!" I gasped, making an attempt to get back up. It failed. He turned and looked at me.

"Watch where you're going." It sounded a lot less angry than it could have. He extended a hand to me, and I grasped it, allowing him to pull me to my feet.

"I'll try to be more careful." I mumbled, looking down at my feet.

"Just what were you doing?" He asked, eyebrows raised.

I shrugged. "I'm taking a break from the kitchen, so I thought that I'd… look around the ship or something."

"Oh yes.. You're the stowaway…" He said. "Well, the Prince has been a little bit off of everyone else's backs lately."

I laughed. "Only because he's been a little bit more on mine."

"So it'll probably go back to normal in a few days…" He sighed. "I won't pretend I enjoy working under him. Watching the way he treats the rest of the crew makes me sick. I wish it was general Iroh who was in charge."

"He knows the men better at least, doesn't he?" I asked, hoping that none of this would reach Zuko.

"Darn right he does! He treats the crew well, and acts in a way that's at least worthy of our respect! Anyway, who likes the idea of serving under a 16 year old brat?"

I shrugged, "I don't mind."

"Yeah, well you've only just arrived."

"I'm also pretty chill when it comes to who's giving me orders." I gave him a probing look, trying to see how he'd react to what I was about to say next. "Pride is a huge, in general, fault in the Firenation."

His eyebrow twitched. "You're saying that just from watching his highness, I'm sure."

I shrugged again. "I've travelled a bit. I think if we acted humbler as a nation that we would all feel more fulfilled."

"You sound like you take issue with the war."

"I just don't get the point of it."

We had a staring contest for a bit, but the man finally looked away.

"I better get back to the kitchen. My break isn't usually very long." I said, trying to break the now uncomfortable silence.

"What's your name, girl?" He asked.

"Don't have one. What's yours?" I returned.

"I'm Jee. Lieutenant Jee." Was his answer. He looked inquisitive, so I decided to break off the conversation before he could ask why I didn't have a name.

"It's nice to meet you Lieutenant. Maybe we'll be able to talk more sometime." After I said that, I scurried away, back to the little hidey-hole of the kitchen.

Maybe this all wouldn't lead into a mutiny. I could get lucky, right?


	3. Wandering Around

It was early morning again, but this time, the weather felt foreboding. It was chilly outside. Maybe we'd strayed too far from the equator, or a storm was about to take over. Either way, I didn't really like it. The cook was cranky, and I was banished from the kitchen. Considering the cook was a whiz with knives, I didn't feel like testing him too much, so I let it be.

The problem with that is that I didn't look busy. I was worried that the prince would jump all over me again for not working. I could already see him now, the yelling, the insults, the threats. It was times like this that I could kind of understand what Lieutenant Jee meant when he pretty much bashed the prince's position as commander of the ship.

Maybe I was thinking about this all wrong. What had I learned in all of my years hunting extra jobs to line my pockets? People always need their clothes fixed, or to have something tidied up. There was always something. So definitely the best move would be to ask around about laundry, if anyone had clothes that needed fixing up, and seeing who needed their boots shined or whatever. And what was the best place to do this?

Down below. In the hold where the crew all slept.

This was a horrible idea.

The alternative? I looked around, and saw the prince, so I decided that no matter what a bad idea it was just to go for it.

Something you should know about men's bedrooms: they stink. Usually stuff is littered everywhere, clothes, shoes, all kinds of leftovers, dishes, or debris. Multiply that by, like 50, and you'll get what the hold was like. It was a military area, so things tended to be neater, but really, how neat can things get if your bed is a hammock, and you have to share with that many others? The result is a walkway between the hammocks with stuff stashed in heaps on two sides in a somewhat ordered fashion. But I could walk, so I guess it wasn't too bad.

I expected everyone to stare at me, but they didn't. Most were asleep. A few people who were awake and fiddling around or something did look up. Now, I wasn't sure whether I should go to each person individually and ask about laundry, torn clothes, or booth shining, or if I should make a general request.

I ended up deciding on the individual approach. There were maybe three people awake anyway.

I went up to the first guy, a large man, half dressed, fiddling with a block puzzle.

"Um, excuse me…" I started.

He looked up. "Yeah?"

"Well, I was wondering if you had any clothes that you wanted washed or fixed." I asked. I realized how it sounded, as if I was his mom or something. "The prince wants me working all the time, but I can't find any other jobs-"

I didn't even get a chance. Three enormous shirts and a pair of pants were tossed on top of me. "Both." He didn't spare me a second look, so I counted myself lucky and moved on to the next person. This guy was older, but still muscular. He looked like he was daydreaming, so I wasn't sure how to break any kind of silence with him. I decided to give him the same routine as the other guy.

"Excuse me… Do you have any clothes that need washed, or fixed? I need a job, so…. Um.."

This time, the guy kind of stared at me uncomprehendingly, but then he hopped down, pulled two shirts from the pile next to his hammock and handed them to me. "They've gotten a little burned in places, and there's a rip in the second one."

I bowed to him. "Many thanks." I turned to go to the next hammock. Behind me, the guy resumed his previous position.

The next guy was maybe two to three years older than me, and kind of handsome. He had to have a girlfriend or a wife back home. No one looks like that and is unattached.

"Ex-"

He laughed. "It's okay. I heard you the other two times." He handed me three pairs of pants. "Mostly just rips, but if you could wash them too, that'd be good."

"Thank you." I smiled, shifting everything around so I could carry it all. Now I just had to remember what went to who.

"No, thank you. It takes time that we don't have to wash and clean them. If it benefits both of us, all the better."

I could feel my face redden, so I mumbled something and made a hasty retreat. Better to get started on this right away. The tiny wash basin in my room should be good enough, and I needed to ask around to see if anyone had a sewing kit. Although I was already unsure what I could do about the scorch marks. Either this guy was fighting, or he was the mechanic.

I went to my room and dumped the clothes into piles based on who they belonged to. I could go around asking more people, and basically advertising myself when I finished with these. It was going to take a while as it was.

The one person I could think who might possibly either have a sewing kit, or know who did was general Iroh.

"Sorry, I don't have anything like that." Iroh said apologetically when I had explained my situation to him.

"Oh, I see." My face reddened. "I'm sorry I bothered you."

"It's fine. I think the cook might have something, so you could ask him." he suggested.

I paled. "Th-the cook?"

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing… He just… kinda banished me, after I broke…" My face reddened again. "Five plates…"

"Five plates?"

I rubbed the back of my neck and looked to the left hand corner of my eyes. "My fire is getting out of control. Sometimes I summon it without even trying… The plates sort of went up in flames."

"Oh my!" He looked grim, but then he laughed. "I guess you weren't kidding when you said you wanted to learn firebending, were you?"

I shook my head. "I wasn't. This happens from time to time, so I wanted to learn how to control it."

"Well, I'll have someone let you know when we decide to take it back up again."

I smiled. "Many thanks."

The general smiled and returned to his game.

I turned and started slowly towards the kitchen. This wasn't exactly what I expected when I had daydreamed about working for the general…. And to my shame, most of my thoughts were preoccupied with the prince. It was all wrong, I was thinking, worrying, wondering about, and trying to impress the prince, when the person I truly cared about impressing and thinking about somehow managed to go out of my mind. Who exactly was I serving here? This was maddening! For my whole life I'd only wanted to serve him… And now it was all wrong somehow.

I knocked at the kitchen door. When the cook opened it, I started speaking before he could. "The general said you might have a sewing kit. If you do, can I borrow it?"

The cook paused, opened his mouth, shut it, opened his mouth again, shut it again, and finally just turned away. "I'll get it for you after the afternoon meal."

"Thank you very much!"

The door shut behind him, and I was left staring at it for a second. I sighed, and looked around.

"Man!" I kicked the door for a minute, quietly, because I didn't really want it reopening, and looked around. I didn't want to wash anything until I'd fixed everything, because it might rip more or something, and it would be easier to wash all of the clothes together.

That, and I was still tired from not sleeping well last night.

Time is wasted when you are trying to get out of doing work, but having to hide it. I ended up not enjoying any of my free time, and didn't get anything accomplished either. The cook finally handed over the sewing kit, which really wasn't much, but it wasn't too bad either. I was a simple person after all, just some needles and thread was good enough for me. The sewing in and of itself only took about an hour to complete, and only that because I was trying to do a good job. The washing on the other hand….

Let's just say that it was late evening by the time I was finished with the washing. My little wash basin was meant for hands, and could only take a few clothes at a time. Even with the bucket that I'd used to take a bath, hauling water was difficult too. By the time I had finished, my hands were raw and red. I could feel the salt drying on my skin. Let me tell you, that's not a pleasant feeling. I went to sleep without bothering to go back on deck, because by then, I was completely exhausted. Too exhausted to want to eat. I simply hung up the clothes on my cage/room to dry, and then hit the sack.

I woke up several times during the night with feverish dreams, but I couldn't recall any of them by the time I woke up.

The clothes were stiff from using salt water on them, but they were dry. I beat them, and hit them against things to loosen them up and work the salt loose, but I could only hope that the result was worth it. I figured the salt wasn't going to be too big of a deal, and the clothes would still be comfortable anyway. Finally, I folded them up, and made my way back up to the deck.

Zuko and Iroh were standing on the deck, looking around. I sighed. It was pitiful how looking for the avatar was ruining their lives. Bird watching would be more interesting than scanning clouds for some guy. Oh well, not like I was going to argue with them on the point.

I walked past them, and headed to the entrance of the hold where all of the crew slept. Ah, back to the piles. The hammocks. The dirty man smell.

It was approximately the same time that day from the day before, so I figured all three guys were off duty again at the same time.

Sure enough, the largish man was taking a nap, the guy with the block game was still playing with it, and the guy from before, the really handsome one, was reading a scroll. I decided to go in order.

I stood underneath the huge guy's hammock and debated how to wake him up. Did I want to wake him up? Yes, I did. I had to give him his clothes. It wasn't hard to tell which were his, they were larger than the other ones. In the end, I just poked him until he woke up. It didn't take long, so I figured he was a light sleeper.

"What do you want?" He asked, rubbing sleep from his eyes.

I put on my best winning smile. "I finished your clothes! Sorry for the wait~!"

The man just grunted, and accepted them from me, going to his pile of stuff, and dumping it in somewhere.

Then I went to the man with the block puzzle. It looked interesting. Maybe I should get one sometime. Since he was awake, it was less work.

"Here are your clothes! Thank you for waiting!" I chimed, thrusting the pile of his clothes into his hands, and turning away before he could respond. He had no choice but to take them, but I didn't see what he did with them after that.

I went to stand in front of the younger man's hammock and waited for him to notice me. I figured it wouldn't take long since he'd been observant before and listened to my explanation to the other two. However, he didn't look up. And he continued not to look up. I shifted my weight a little, starting to feel embarrassed, like I was some kind of creep that was just staring at him. How to break his concentration without making it obvious that I had been waiting for a while.

"Um, I brought your clothes." I said, smiling nervously.

No effect.

I repeated myself, just a little louder.

No effect.

Finally, I touched his shoulder. He looked up curiously, like he really hadn't realized that I'd been there the whole time. "Wow!" I exclaimed. "Your concentration is sure amazing!" Then I realized that I'd just blurted out what I was thinking and hadn't actually just gotten to the point of what I'd come to do.

He grinned. "Thanks."

I felt my face redden again. It felt like I was firebending with my face.

I held out his pile of clothes. "Here. Um. These are yours. I mean, I guess you know that, but… I'm sorry I took so long!" I bowed and tried to make a hasty retreat.

"Hey, wait!" He called after me.

Busted.

I turned back around. "Yes?"

"What's your name? I'm Lee."

"Uh…. I don't… remember."

"What?" He looked a little confused.

I blushed even more fiercely as I realized how this sounded. "I mean, I don't actually… you know, have one."

He didn't say anything, so I tried to compensate. "I mean… uh… I guess I did have one at some point, but I don't really remember what it was, and no one's really bothered to give me a ..new….one…. Yep. I… uh… better go."

"Oh." He sounded slightly baffled still, but if I was correct, I caught a taste of disappointment. "Okay. Well, thanks for washing them."

I smiled. "No problem. If you want me to wash or fix anything else, you can… uh… bring it down to my room. You know, in the prison hold? It's the first one." Why did I sound like such an idiot? I decided to spare myself some grief, and just ran away, back up to the deck.

Maybe I shouldn't have done that, but I couldn't take the stress. Usually I was analytical and level headed. How did this happen?

It was still early morning, so I had to figure out something to do with myself. Maybe I should go advertise my new job or something. The first person I ran into-

"Oof!" I grunted, falling down again on my backside, similarly to when I bumped into Lieutenant Jee for the first time.

"Ahhh!" The other person yelled, as he fell over.

"I'm s-" I looked up, and stopped short in the middle of my apology. "Prince Zuko!"

"Watch where you're going!" He snapped.

I sighed, relaxing. "Sorry. I was thinking." What better opportunity? I pushed myself off of the floor of the deck, and extended a hand to help him up, which was pushed away as he climbed back to his feet on his own. "I was wondering if you had any clothes that needed washed. I was kicked off of my first job, so I figured laundry would be a good place to start up again."

At first he didn't say anything, then he nodded.

I clapped my hands once. "Good! Then I'll be by to pick them up this evening."

"Make sure you swing by Uncle's room." he instructed, turning and leaving me to decide who to target next. I decided I was not going to be so disrespectful as to barge in on General Iroh that night to collect clothes, I should at least give him due warning.

So, I made my way up to the recreation hall/steering area. There was an enormous pi-sho gambling tournament going on. Of course, it wasn't hard to guess who was winning. Suddenly I felt embarrassed about bringing up laundry duty. Perhaps later…

It occurred to me that it wouldn't hurt to brush up on my firebending a bit. Still, it would be bad if it seemed like I never worked… I'd just check the kitchen to see if there was anything to do….

Back to the beginning. Even if I couldn't tell Iroh that I needed his clothes, I could still go around to the other crew members and ask them if they needed laundry to be done, and tell them where to drop it off. This was going to be one busy night.

**Author's Note:**

**So, I'm a little stuck on filler material. This chapter was both short and hectic, I apologize. It won't be like that in the future, but I'm making sure certain things have roots/a chance to start. If anyone has any ideas that they think would be good for the story, or things that they would like to see happen, I'd be more than happy to hear them, although I do have an outline planned for this. Sorry for the wait! I wrote this chapter three times, persuing different ideas and none of them seemed right. This was the best thing to come out of it, so I'm leaving it here. Again, if you have ideas, you can PM me. Thanks!**


	4. Detour

The next three days were really busy. Aside from getting laundry, Zuko pretty much ignored me, though other people took me up on my offer to do theirs. I did run into problems with knowing who owned what… But in the end, I just found a spare hammock that was set up (I have no idea what happened to that particular crew member… He could have been the one that got sick with small pox and had to be left behind to be treated) and let as many people know as I could that clean clothes would be left there, so if they had anything they expected to get clean, to check there.

Another disappointing thing was that it had been almost a week and the prince and the general still hadn't started the prince's training in firebending back up. It was starting to bother me a little bit, since I was still having problems with accidentally summoning fire and scorching things.

It was probably about ten-o-clockish when we docked a little way from shore. The boats had relatively flat bottoms compared to some ships, so ours was able to get a little bit closer to the shore then most ships would have been. Even so, the enormity of the ship kept us from coming too close.

I was hanging out in the steering room, simply because some of the crew was playing pi-sho as they waited, and I wanted to see if I could pick up any good moves to beat the general with. It was probably pointless, the man was a genius.

Suddenly, the prince stormed into the room. I could tell he wasn't super happy... But who was I kidding? He was never happy. Still, he seemed… a tad more displeased than normal. Something had set him off.

"Captain!" He barked, "We're going to raise our anchor in twenty minutes! Get to your post!" Immediately, without explanation (as was usual) he stormed off without a word.

I blinked three times. It wasn't that it was unlike him. No. But all of it was just so sudden. There was peace and quiet... And then there was Zuko. What an end to it!

I decided to check it out, standing up slowly and quietly, and exiting the room. Zuko was out on the deck, pretty much where I expected him to be.

"What's wrong?" I asked, trying to quiet my sigh.

"Nothing is wrong!" He snapped back, without looking at me.

I shook my head. "Forgive me… But it seems a bit odd for you to suddenly announce that we're departing like that... if nothing is wrong." I flinched when me moved, expecting him to start yelling again.

"It doesn't matter." His voice was low and tense, but it didn't hold any more hostility.

"I apologize." I hesitated for a moment, unsure if I should ask. "Is there anything I can do?"

"Go see if uncle is coming. I gave him a time limit about two hours ago, and he's still not here yet! If he's not ready, tell him he better come, or we'll take off without him." The prince stalked away and I wondered why I had bothered to ask. Maybe I needed this. If I offered to help him more, he might trust me more.

I didn't want to get stuck on the ship if we were supposed to be preparing to sail again, at least, not when I had an errand to run. So I made my way off the ship as quickly as possible.

I figured it wouldn't be too hard to find the general, but it took longer than I expected.

What finally clued me in was the clothes I saw hanging on the tree. "Don't tell me…" I suddenly felt a headache coming on. It had been at least eight of the ten minutes that we had to show up, and the General's clothes were hanging on a tree? How would we ever get this solved in time?

"General…." I called out, trying not to let the nervousness seep into my voice.

No reply.

"General?" I frowned. It wasn't like him not to answer at all. I decided it warranted going on past the tree that had his clothes on it. What I saw made me stare for a moment, uncomprehendingly.

There had been a natural tub of sorts. I could tell that much from the mud all over the ground. But there was more to it. Spikes of earth came up in irregular patterns. What did it mean?

I slapped my forehead with my palm. Earth benders. They must have figured out who the General was and captured him while he was sitting there defenseless. By now, half our time must have passed, the ship would have sailed and there was no reason to go back. No, I had to try to track these guys. Maybe we could find another way to catch up with Zuko. It didn't matter, from here, all that mattered was that I rescue the general, if he hadn't already managed to do it himself.

There were footprints from a large animal, possibly an ostrich-horse. It would be difficult to hide those kinds of tracks.

As it turned out, I was right, they were really easy to spot. I followed them out the other end of the woods, onto a sort of dirt road. It wasn't particularly wide, but several ostrich-horses could probably walk right next to each other. There was bamboo growing thickly on both sides, so I knew that there was no way that they could choose to deviate from the trail either, for now.

The sun would be setting in a few hours, so it would be best if I could hurry. However, I knew from previous experiences that running would only wear me out, and I probably would lose time taking breaks when I could simply walk at a good pace. I began to do something between a walk and a jog, but it would still take a long time for me to catch up to the general. Gradually, there was less dust, and more rock on the road. The going was getting tougher. But there was still no way they could deviate from the trail, a ledge had gradually sprung up to the side of the road… But then, these people were Earthbenders… They probably could go wherever they wanted to, as long as there was earth.

One problem with walking by yourself without knowing how long it's going to take, or what you'll do when you get there is that your brain goes into hyper drive. Either you start remembering things you don't want to think about, or you start worrying about things that could happen in the future. In between worrying about how long it would take to catch up with general Iroh, and worrying about what I would do when I finally did catch up, I also wondered what exactly my goal was on the ship. After all, I had gone off kind of half-cocked, and after dealing with nightmares every night for the last week, I was beginning to wonder if I had come really to serve general Iroh, or if I was trying to run away from something. Life wasn't too bad before, so I had no idea what I would be running away from, but all the same, I was more distracted on the ship than I cared to think about. And how was I contributing? By washing clothes? How pitiful! Anyone with a brain could do that, and laundry wasn't exactly necessary. If only I was better at firebending! Then- I stopped myself in the middle of thinking that. Then what? I could help Zuko capture the Avatar? I could protect Iroh from… what? Killer birds? Despite being on a military ship, it wasn't as if we were in any real danger, most of the time. Again, the problem of who I wanted to impress and serve seemed to run in circles in my mind until I wanted to scream.

There! I almost missed it in the ever-dimming light, a sandal…. I stopped, panting, and allowed myself to take a break. It had to be the general's… He hadn't escaped, but he was leaving a clue behind. I looked back over my shoulder and realized that I'd taken one fork of the path without realizing it. I slapped my hand over my eyes. "STUPID!" I was lucky that time, but that didn't mean that I would be in the future. I thanked fate or whatever it was that kept me from taking the other fork, and decided to leave the sandal where it was. I wasn't sure what the point would be of leaving it there, unless maybe the prince would come after his uncle, realizing that he still wasn't on board… Maybe he'd try and track him down… Probably not, but you never know.

After my break, the light was just about gone from the sky, and I was starting to lose hope. Someone on foot could not hope to catch up to someone with ostrich-horses, and I hadn't had much time to catch up. They could have left long before I had ever arrived on the scene. But there was definitely no way that I could stop either, anything could be happening.

The sun set. Gradually crickets and other insects that come about at night decided to make their presence known to the world. I stopped jogging, and started walking. Probably about half an hour passed before my feet began dragging on the ground. There was no way…. I fell to my knees on the ground. I couldn't keep going.. I couldn't just keep going, not when they were hours away like this… I wasn't strong enough to keep it up indefinitely. I had failed. Maybe it was time just to rest for the night.

Rather than try to move myself off the path (It didn't seem like anyone else was coming this way anyhow) I just started drifting off where I was.

I sat up with a start. Of course! That was what they would be doing, resting until morning, probably. After all, what reason did they have to go through the night? It was probably one or two in the morning, they would have stopped a long time ago, which meant I was probably getting closer!

With some renewed energy, I pulled myself and started going again, just walking. But even a little bit at a time would get me there. As long as I was right, and they were taking a break for the night, I could possibly catch up to them.

I was beginning to tire again when I noticed a light. A light meant that someone had made a fire… And a fire could possibly mean- but I should be cautious. If it really was them, then I should be careful. They had a prisoner, so likely they'd have a guard. I should take him out before trying everything else. And to be realistic, I had a bad feeling about taking any of them out. I was so exhausted that I felt as if my arms and legs were made of lead. But I would do anything I had to do. Anything at all.

I crawled forward, and realized that there was one guy standing up. Lucky for me, they'd made their camp next to the woods. Maybe I could get up behind that guy, and hit him on the head from behind. Unless he was guarding the forest… Then I should approach the road… But that was unreasonable, they were probably guarding the road, because anyone that came, or left would come from there, right?

I backed off a bit, then climbed off of the road and into the woods. After what seemed like hours, I could see the light again, through the trees. I was so close…

Making an effort to slow down, I half-crouched and moved slowly through the woods. There! I could see the sentry from before. Lucky for me, he was facing the road. I crept so close, that I was standing on ledge about four feet from him. I took as quiet a deep breath as I could, and jumped, trying to tackle him before he could make a noise. He fought back pretty hard, but in the end, he ended up hitting his head on the ground, dazing him a bit. I stood shakily to my feet and looked around. There was no time to waste! He wasn't unconscious, just had the wind knocked out of him. There were ostrich-horses, but no tents, the men slept around a fire. The general was sleeping too, but he was a little farther from the others, where the man I'd just tackled could keep an eye on him.

One look at the chains they'd bound him with left me certain that there was no possible way I could get him out on my own. He wasn't dressed (not a surprise, since I had found his clothes hanging on that tree), and he was shackled up in an uncomfortable position, with his ankles secured with rope. I had to keep a grip on my emotions to keep them from skyrocketing into an enraged mess. I'd probably burn the whole forest down if that happened, and I didn't want Iroh to get hurt.

They were soldiers, so they probably had weapons…. Hopefully they used more than their Earthbending… Soldiers had to carry weapons of some sort, right? They had all their stuff next to them, and I finally realized that there was a knife handle just barely sticking out of an upended bag. If I could just cut the general's legs free, we could steal one of their ostrich-horses and… ride away? It was the best I could come up with for now, plans typically weren't my thing.

I ran carelessly through the group of sleeping men, aware of how little time I had. I just needed to get the knife.

I couldn't help but feel a bit smug when I finally made it. Adrenaline was racing through my veins so that the shaking in my limbs didn't bother me. I wasn't sure if that was from the adrenaline, or also from exhaustion. I had to be careful, wouldn't want to accidentally cut the general while I was working on these ropes…

"So, you're one of his…" a voice came from behind me.

Oops.

I jumped, spinning wildly around, and holding the knife in front of me. "Look… I'm sure he wasn't doing anything to you, could you just be… a nice gentleman and let him go?" I asked, pushing myself into a stance. Like that would ever happen…

He must have been one of the guys I thought was asleep… Probably my mad rush woke him up. I heard the soldier to the side gasp a bit. More company. It wasn't really the best time to stall, and I also couldn't afford to turn my back to this guy to cut the ropes. I had lost… But that didn't mean I was willing to admit it!

The soldier raised an eyebrow, and I sighed. "I thought not." I adopted an apologetic tone. "Well, sorry, but we have to be moving. If you're not going to let us go, I guess I'll have to fight you." I cracked my knuckles, avoiding the knife in my hand. "Fine then! I'll take you on, body and soul!"

He actually laughed at this. "Fight me? You're kidding, right?"

I glared at him, and made a run for his throat. I never got that far.

It was embarrassing how easily he slapped me out of the way. I could feel the welt rising on my cheek. Now I was angry. "Aaaaaaarggh!" I yelled, effectively waking up everyone else who was asleep. _Great._ But still, I was too angry to realize how bad that was. I brought the knife up past my right shoulder, and ran forward, screaming, about to slash at the soldier. He merely smacked me in the chin with his elbow, and when my head went flying back, he kicked me in the chest, straight toward the ledge that I'd jumped from. The impact knocked the wind out of me, and I slumped to the ground. My adrenaline rush was gone, leaving the wave of exhaustion to crash on me.

What a funny time to realize how starving you are… I tottered to my feet, still holding the knife somehow. "I refuse to lose to you!"

Somehow I had managed to forget that there were more of them than just the one guy. The guard had recovered by this point. He must have been the one that hit me in the back of the head.

I crumpled onto the road.

My entire body ached.

Not that you shouldn't expect that when you get smacked that hard. Seriously, don't pick fights with guys that are much larger than you when you haven't slept in over 20 hours. It's not pleasant, and it typically doesn't end well.

I groaned, feeling my senses begin to come back as I realized how much I ached. The first time I opened my eyes the colors all blurred together, so I shut them again.

"Hey!"

I heard the voice in front of me, and forced my eyes to open. "Huh?"

"So you're alive." Zuko sighed. I wasn't sure if he was happy about that or not…

I laughed bitterly. "Not sure if that's a good thing at the moment."

"Where did they take Uncle?" He searched my face. I found it dreadfully intimidating, especially since I wasn't sure what he was looking for.

"I don't know. I was so close, just…" I looked around. I was leaning on the wall that I'd crashed into before. Strange, I thought I'd crumpled on the road… "Hey, what are you doing here anyway?" It dawned on me that it was weird that he was here, since he said he was leaving twenty minutes before this whole mess started.

"You never reported back. We waited a couple hours, and you never came, so I went looking. That's how we found out that Uncle was gone." He glared. "They got you too, didn't they?"

I shook my head. "No… I thought I'd try to find him on my own…"

The silence before the storm was deafening.

"Are you stupid?" Zuko shouted. "As soon as you found out something was wrong, you should have come back and reported to me!"

I groaned. "With due respect, that would have resulted in us taking more time. We might not have caught up to him in time…"

"We're still not caught up to him, if you haven't noticed!" Zuko retorted. "You've accomplished absolutely nothing, unless you count getting yourself knocked senseless!"

I blinked and lookd away. He was right after all. "I-I'm sorry. You're right, it didn't do any good."

There was a brief silence, and I could see him almost visibly cooling off. "Here." He handed me some hardtack. "You should eat. I don't want you to collapse or anything while we're looking for him." I stared incredulously at what he was holding out, and then cautiously took it.

He turned the other way, and looked down the road. He was probably impatient to get going and worried about his uncle. If he came all this way, he must be. I devoured the hardtack as fast as I could possibly manage. The shaking in my body eased a bit. I relaxed some. "Okay… How are we going to catch up to them on foot?" I asked, embarrassed to have slowed him down so much.

"We won't have to, I brought a rhino. Let's go." He turned and started back around the bend. So that's why I couldn't see it...

When we finally mounted, I wasn't sure what to do. I was getting stronger by the minute, but it was still taking time for the hardtack to hit my bloodstream.

"You can hold on to me if you need to."

I blinked. Quite honestly, it was the last thing I actually expected him to say. "Thanks."

"We're going to ride hard, so I don't expect to have to stop for you. If you fall off, you'll just have to stay there."

"Got it." I put my arms around his waist, gingerly, kind of expecting him to blow up, or to be blazing hot. But no. He was very, very …human feeling. It was almost a let down, but then, what had I expected?

We rode hard for a long time, just like he'd planned. It was probably late morning when he found me, and it was starting to get dark again before anything happened. Neither of us really talked much. ...Okay, neither of us talked at all.

I had started going into a daze when we finally stopped. He dismounted the rhino. I was about to do the same, but he stopped me.

"Stay here!" He whispered.

"What's going on?" I asked him back.

"Sh! Listen."

I frowned, trying to figure out what I was listening for. I suddenly heard what he must have heard. Voices.

"Stay here." He whispered harshly. "I'm going down to get uncle."

"But I can-" I started. He silenced me with a glare.

"If you won't agree to stay here, I will tie you down! I don't need anyone getting in the way!" he whispered loudly. I could hear the seriousness in his voice. He wasn't kidding. I nodded.

"Good luck." I whispered, helplessly. There wasn't anything I could really do if his mind was so made up.

He nodded and turned, disappearing between the rocks.

I stayed there for maybe 30 seconds before I dismounted and moved closer. If he wouldn't let me fight, I could at least watch. I just couldn't stand sitting here and knowing nothing about whether they would win or lose. Besides, after having something to eat and resting a bit, I felt significantly better.

"-must be crushed!" The soldier who had dispatched me so quickly yesterday announced. I finally heard his voice, not having to concentrate on watching my step or making sure Zuko didn't see me. I watched as he caused a huge rock to levitate over the general's hands, which were shackled, and laid down flat against an equally huge boulder. My eyes widened. They couldn't…

The movement was so fast, I almost missed it. Zuko came crashing in, kicking the boulder out of the way, and flipping backward. He swung his leg in an arc, breaking the general's chains in half. I couldn't follow it all, but before I knew it, the general was wielding the two separate chains attached to his wrists as some kind of weapon.

"Excellent form, prince Zuko!" He praised his nephew.

From my position, I caught a ghost of a smile -the first I'd ever seen- on Zuko's face. "You taught me well."

"Surrender yourselves!" The lead soldier interrupted. "It's five against two and you're clearly outnumbered!"

"Ah, that's true." General Iroh agreed. "But you are clearly outmatched!"

I nearly gasped. This was the legendary Iroh, the Dragon of the West. The man who'd won a thousand battles, the man who had started the almost two year siege of Ba-Sing-Sae. It was as if there was a kind of dangerous fire radiating from him. I was glad that I was on his side.

True to form, somehow the general and the prince took out all five of the men. I could barely follow it, there was so much that I wanted to know how to do and to be able to try. It was the most amazing fight I had ever seen.

It culminated to a high point, the lead soldier was about to crush Zuko with a tower of rocks. Iroh snapped the chain around the soldier's ankles and caused him to trip, knocking down the tower of rocks on top of him.

The tension released and Zuko put his hand on his uncle's shoulder. I could tell that he was also proud of their work. "Now would you please put on some clothes?"

I walked back to the rhino, knowing they were right behind me, probably. I heard the two of them come up, and turned to face Zuko. "I just realized… There's no way we can all ride the rhino."

He frowned. "We can all fit."

It was not an ideal situation. Somehow, sitting behind an almost naked man appealed to me as little as sitting in front of an almost naked man. Plus, it was almost a little embarrassing to me to be that close to Zuko anymore. There was nothing romantic in it at all, it was purely practical. But still, I found it strange to be that close if there was another way to do things.

"Hey, what about grabbing one of their ostrich-horses?" I asked.

"I don't want to take longer than we have to."

"But it will make things shorter in the long run, right?" Oh excuses, excuses. I started toward the edge to find my way down.

Zuko sounded like he was about to say something, but Iroh caught him right before he could actually say it. "How am I supposed to put on my clothes when you haven't brought them?"

The prince gave an exasperated yell, and climbed onto the rhino. Iroh managed to get up beside him, and I took off to find an ostrich-horse for myself. It didn't take long.

What took time was getting it onto the path. Those creatures are kind of stupid.

Once I made my way onto the path, I realized that we were going the wrong way. I pushed my ostrich-horse to catch up to Zuko's rhino. "Wait a second, isn't the ship in the other direction?" I asked, a little surprised.

"We're going after the avatar."

"The Avatar?" I asked. "I thought he was the reason you wanted to leave?"

"I saw his bison when I was on my way to find Uncle, before I ran into you. He's here and I'm not going to leave until I catch up to him."

There was no arguing with him. I made a mental note to find out why the avatar was so important to him. Was it just the status of it? Somehow that seemed off. The prince was almost desperate to find him. There had to be more to it than simply gaining glory.

Zuko could not be persuaded to give us more than a few hours to sleep, so it was early in the morning, and still dark by the time we got to the village. The village was tiny, and most of it was wrecked too. As if a band of pirates had come through and destroyed as much as they could before they were forced to stop.

Zuko hopped down off of the rhino and made his way to the front door of the main building confidently. He pounded on the door and a somewhat wimpy looking man answered it. "Having trouble sleeping?" Zuko demanded. He kicked the man into the door. I winced as it caved and the guy fell through it. That had to hurt…

"Seen the avatar lately?" He followed up.

I noticed the huge bison that he must have seen earlier take off.

"Umm…" the man was clearly stalling for time. "The Avatar? I thought he was dead. He hasn't been seen for a hundred years!"

"Don't try to play games with me!" Poor Zuko. He'd been through a lot in the last day, it seemed like this was just another block to keep him from getting the avatar. Should I feel that way? He just kicked a man through the door… He could afford to be kinder. But I noticed that that note of desperation crept back into his voice again. It was just a hint, barely anything at all. But it was something. And he cared a little about his uncle, so in my mind, he deserved at tleast a little bit of sympathy.

I saw the bison take off and hesitated for a moment. Did I really want to change course and start chasing the avatar down again? But I felt sorry for the prince, and I really did owe him after he …well, didn't leave me laying in the middle of the road, and gave me something to eat. Not to mention, I didn't want anyone in the village to get hurt either… "Sir, I think I just saw him take off."

Zuko growled in frustration, turning on his heel and mounting the rhino again as fast as he could.

I rubbed my eyes. It was probably about four hours since we'd left the village, and it was about 8:00 in the morning. Morning. I was beginning to hate it. Why did it exist in the first place? Mentally, I decided to take the rest of the day off. When we finally staggered onto the ship, and guards took care of the rhino and ostrich-horse, I hobbled to my room. Hopefully the prince was humane enough not to force me to work too much today… I couldn't say anything for sure about his character, but I didn't think anyone else would expect that of me.

How many people would expect to miss a prison-hold cell? I never would have thought that I was one of them, but I found out differently. Since it smelled familiar by now, and meant sleep, I figured that this cell was as welcoming as heaven would be. Perhaps that was an exaggeration…

Who cared? Sleep first.


	5. Smoke Screen

I was rather tired, but there wasn't any time for that. The bison had gotten a head start on us, and there was no way I was going to waste my time sleeping when there was a chance that we could locate and catch up to him.

Before she got away, I wrung information about the direction the bison flew, out of The Girl. After all, by air there wasn't anything he had to avoid, so the avatar probably was headed somewhere as the bird flies. Taking off in the middle of the night? Probably in a hurry. Which meant he had something important to do… Maybe the kid was looking for a master. I couldn't really afford for him to get any stronger, so it would be best if I caught up to him before that.

The sun had risen a several hours before, and light washed across the sky. It was one of those bright, but cloudy days. It was already about 10:00 AM, so it wasn't likely to change either. Unfortunate.

"It is almost time to eat. Why don't you relax and have something to keep your strength up?"

Without even turning around, I could tell that it was uncle that had asked the question. Though it sounded like any other question, it was laced with concern. Half of me warmed to him for that. Half of me felt a little… hurt that he didn't think I could take care of myself. I wasn't exactly a little kid anymore.

"I don't have time for food!" I snapped the edge of the anger off of my voice, but there was still plenty of it in there. Why? Why was I so angry? It wasn't so much at uncle… No. It was just a kind of darkness inside me. Something that had followed me around for a long time. Would it go away once I captured the avatar and regained my honor? "We're on the avatar's trail. If we'd gotten back to the ship sooner, I might have caught up to him faster! He's not getting away this time."

There was silence. I sensed that my uncle hadn't moved.

"Which direction are we sailing, exactly?" He asked.

Why didn't he know this? Sometimes I wondered why he acted so stupid… "We're sailing west."

"The avatar is flying west?" I heard tenseness in his voice, but couldn't make myself look. I'd finally caught the avatar in my spyglass.

"Sure looks that way." I replied tersely.

"Sailing into firenation waters…" I could hear the head shake in his voice. "Of all the foolish things you have done in your sixteen years, Prince Zuko, this is the most foolish!" I felt my shoulders tense at the rebuke. A new all-time-personal-low Zuko, congratulations! Exactly what choice did I have?

My tone hardened in turn. Why was he criticizing me? He should know this. Still, I managed to keep calm. "I have no choice, uncle."

Apparently he didn't notice. "Have you completely forgotten that the firelord banished you?" He yelled at me. "…what if you're caught?" This was much quieter, and his tone was gentler.

"I'm chasing the avatar!" I looked back over my shoulder and caught his expression. Maybe this would help him feel a bit better about it, and he'd leave me alone? "My father will understand why I'm coming home!"

"You give him too much credit. My brother is not the understanding type." He retorted.

Perhaps not. But arguing with him was the least of my problems. I decided to leave it and turned back to my spyglass. I'd missed him by now…

I found him again surprisingly fast. He wasn't changing course. "There they are." I looked back up to make sure the helmsman was paying attention. "Helmsman! Full steam ahead!"

Just then The Girl walked onto the lookout deck with us. She'd been a mess the day before, but she was almost as bad today. Her hair which went about down to her shoulder blades was (as usual) streaming down her back and over her right eye. I almost thought it was a mockery of the way that my scar covered my left, but she'd had it like that every day since then too. Maybe she had an embarrassing scar or something she was trying to cover up. Basically, she looked like a street urchin, with rumpled clothes and a dazed expression. My guess was that she'd just woken up.

"What'd I miss?" she murmured. Like I couldn't hear her. I decided to ignore that.

My uncle shook his head in response. "Apparently we're sailing into Firenation waters."

She shrugged. "So what's the problem?"

"I'm not supposed to return until I capture the avatar." I answered, trying to give her the short version to shut her up. I saw that something clicked in her mind and she nodded.

I turned away from her, disinterested. Uncle was right, it wasn't ideal to enter the Firenation before capturing/killing the avatar. Maybe I could shoot the bison down before they made it, surely death for the avatar would be as good as imprisonment. Even if he was reborn into the cycle (this wasn't ideal, I wanted him alive. I didn't really prefer to kill anyone if I could help it.) it would take forever for him to be able to do anything about it. By then, my father would probably have accomplished his goal (even though I still doubted it would be easy for him).

The moment I had been waiting for had arrived. He was in our range. I gave the command, and all of us moved down to the deck, while some of my crew prepared the trebuchets.

Uncle still didn't seem to approve. He took out his paper fan and waved it in front of his face. "Really Prince Zuko, couldn't you shoot them down with something more fragrant?"

"Hah!" I lit up the pitch covered rock, and raised my left arm like an old salute. "On my mark… fire!"

"But there's no way that they'd know that you were in firenation territory, right sir?" I heard her from right beside me. How had she snuck up on me like that? I watched the fireball nearly hit the bison and miss. Such dissatisfying results. We'd try again as soon as possible.

"I mean, unless there was a-"

My eyes (or rather eye, the scarred one couldn't change as easily) widened. I hadn't expected it. "a blockade." I finished for her.

I felt silence across the deck. No. I wouldn't be defeated by this. I had no choice but to do it, and even though luck was never on my side, maybe somehow, my desperation would be able to pull it off.

I still had a chance to shoot him down before the blockade.

I whipped back toward my men. "Well? What are you standing there for! We need more ammunition!" I yelled. People scrambled. Good. It was always satisfying to know that I wasn't being ignored.

But… surely the avatar would turn around. These ships would have way more ammunition than I did, it should be impossible for the avatar to maneuver around all of them!

"Technically you are still in Earth Kingdom waters." Uncle commented. I turned my gaze toward him without changing position. "Turn back now and they cannot arrest you."

Seriously? That's still what he was thinking about? I had no time for this! I turned my gaze back toward the avatar… surely… but no.

"He's not turning around!" I returned.

"Please Prince Zuko! If the Firenation captures you, there is nothing I can do. Do not follow the avatar!"

The warm, concerned feeling I felt came back earlier. But I had to disappoint him. There was no way I could not follow the avatar. I bit my lip, already feeling some regret. "I'm sorry uncle." I hesitated, pulling my resolve together, and pointed forward. "Run the blockade!"

As we grew closer, I could swear that all the ships started looking more distinct. Suddenly, the sky was filled with fire, rocks and pitch lit up to hit that bison. And we were right behind him, should they miss, which some of them definitely would. I felt my stomach drop. There was a good chance we would be hit in this mess… Surprisingly, most of them missed us. One boulder came so close to the ship, it tossed water over the side and washed a man away. Finally, just like I knew it would, one flaming boulder hit the back of the ship. The impact knocked me over a bit. I pulled myself to my feet again, unwilling to look like an idiot in front of my crew.

"Prince Zuko!" someone shouted, I looked in the direction the voice was coming from. "The engines are damaged! We need to stop, and make repairs!"

I gritted my teeth. The universe was already at work to stop me. No. I would not be crushed like this, never!

"Do not stop this ship!" I yelled, strengthening my resolve with anger.

Suddenly, the bison dived downward, hit the surface of the water, grazed it a couple more times like a stone, skipping through the water, and pulled in faster, close to the blockade. One final boulder was fired. The avatar leapt up and used some airbending trick to deflect it, knocking it into pieces. This was who I was dealing with… No, this time I would do it. I just had to keep having confidence, and remember not to make any mistakes. He was powerful for being a child…

The avatar passed the blockade. Now it was my turn. The ships were passing each other, but there was always a gap. Maybe if we did it just right we could pull through it.

"We are on a collision course!" Uncle exclaimed. He didn't seem to think so.

I made a fist. "We can make it!" I shouted back at him.

I heard brakes hit just as we began to pass through, and then there was complete silence. I looked up, straight into the face of the man I hated most in the whole world. Commander Zhou. Our eyes met, and one solid, electric connection, filled with hatered passed between us. I was filled with a sense of utter helplessness and malice.

The moment passed, and we continued into the Firenation waters. It bothered me. There was no way that he'd just let me though, but this looked like an act of mercy.

I turned to a crew member standing near me. A young man. "You! Go below and tell them to put away our catapult. We don't need it now!"

He bowed and took off. I made for the lookout deck, followed by Uncle and The Girl. Didn't she have anything better to do? Probably not. Maybe she'd be useful eventually. Probably she was just bored. Whatever, I didn't care what she did.

It was time to think. The helmsman would keep our course, so there was no need to keep an eye out for the avatar (not that I could very well do so, he'd disappeared for now), but it was quiet up here, and I needed to think. Zhou was not a generous man, we had a mutual dislike for each other, to put it mildly. It went beyond his trying to ruin my future, I'd hated him probably since the day I'd met him.

I just couldn't think. My head wouldn't clear. I grabbed the iron railing in front of me and tightened that grip until my knuckles turned white. "What's he up to uncle? Why didn't Commander Zhou arrest me?"

"Because he wants to follow you. He knows you'll lead him to the prize you're both after, the avatar."

Well, if that was it… "If Zhou wants to follow our trail of smoke, then that's exactly what I'll let him do." I stood quietly, thinking about it. I could take one of the smaller, scouting boats out. Uncle would keep the ship going, there was no way they'd need to arrest him. For some reason he'd come with me willingly when I'd had to leave. There was no reason for him not to return. Wait. Was I thinking pessimistically again? I had to believe this would go through. In any case, if trouble arose, I would still have my scouting ship, and I could… maybe get back out past the blockade. But it shouldn't come to that. I would capture the avatar, bring him aboard, move him to the ship once we reconnected, and then I'd head straight for home.

I turned and headed down to the hold, where we kept all the equipment. Uncle would probably feel like I was in one of my moods. I just had to move it to one side so our smoke would screen it, and we could get it into the water.

As I made my way down the hold, I quickly realized I was not alone. "Why are you following me?"

The Girl raced up beside me, like it was alright now that I'd heard her. "Can I come too?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"I don't need someone to make more trouble and get in the way."

She made a face. "I know I made a mistake that time, but that doesn't mean I'll get in the way this time."

"I don't need help!"

She crossed her arms. "How many people does it take to maneuver the boat you're planning to use?"

How did she know? Maybe she was sharper than I thought. "One." I returned. "So I don't need anyone else. I can do it alone!"

She actually laughed. "Haha! But, how many people will it take to contain the avatar?"

My pride did not want to admit that I'd just made another blunder. She was right. It wasn't like the avatar would just sit still and allow himself to be captured. He'd definitely put up a fight, and that was at least one other person to keep him under wraps.

"Why would I take you? I might as well take someone who's strong and can handle him!"

She shook her head. "But that wouldn't really do, would it? Suppose that that person tells his friends, 'Hey, you know how Prince Zuko captured the avatar? Well, he couldn't do it without me, he's just an incompetent teenager!'" She shrugged, adopting a nonchalant tone. "Then, his friend will tell a friend, and his friend will tell a friend, and it will get back to the firelord, and everyone at court. And your father will be embarrassed, because it will look like a nobody outdid his own son."

I gritted my teeth and felt my left hand start shaking. Steam curled in soft tendrils, emanating from it. The very suggestion of my incompetence… I was competent! Just.. Had extremely bad luck, and made one or two mistakes. It struck me how similar to my sister her train of thought was. Was she manipulating me? "So why should you go?"

She looked up at me, seriousness reflected all over her features. "Because I owe you. And because I don't care about glory. And I'm a fast learner. And I owe your uncle. And because I can keep my mouth shut when you want me to."

I have yet to see that. I thought to myself irritably. But her logic made sense. Kind of. "What's in it for you?"

"Like I said, I owe you, and I owe your uncle. If I can be useful, somehow, even if it's just steering the boat around, I'll be happy. And also, because I haven't had any action lately except for your uncle's…. Excursion."

I wasn't sure I trusted her, but I couldn't see really anything that she could gain from it either. While someone might believe the lie that I needed the help of a strong man, no one would believe a flimsy little girl had been the one to capture the avatar instead of me. If it came up, it wouldn't be hard to say that she was just part of the crew who was steering the scouting boat… which was actually true.

"You can come if you help me get the boat to the side." I finally allowed. Not that I was happy about it, but it looked good. Maybe she wanted an extra opportunity to gain my trust. Not that it would matter once I captured the avatar.

"Yay!" She skipped beside me all the way down to the hold. What was she, six? Did she have an ounce of dignity? Even if she looked like she was my age, there was no way that she acted like it.

I stopped in front of one of the boats, the one I was most used to, and began pushing on it. It had wheels on the bottom to make it easier to load back into the ship or onto the shore. The Girl pushed with me until I stopped and pointed to a rectangle marked out on the floor. "Move it over there. We'll use it to lift the boat to the deck."

She didn't respond, which I found a little irritating, but I got back to pushing it with her. Finally, we pushed it past the lines on the ground. I used the rope next to it to pull it to the top. The whole thing was like an enormous lift. There were enough pulleys and rope that it only took one person to lift the whole thing to the top. I tied the rope off once it was set at the top and started back the way we'd came so I could collect the boat at the top. I didn't have to look back to know that The Girl was following me.

We made it back to the top and pushed the boat over to the side. Uncle came over and helped me lower part of the side into the water. The Girl climbed into the cabin, and I stood on the tiny deck of the boat after we managed to slide it off the ship and into the water. It was time for last instructions.

"Uncle, keep heading North. Zhou will follow the smoke trail while I use it as a cover."

Uncle almost looked like he approved, but he didn't say anything. I didn't have time to hear anything else, we slid off and into the mist. I decided to enter the cabin and explain the controls to the girl. I'd rather guard the avatar myself, so maneuvering the boat was up to her.

She was glancing over controls, pacing left and right. So she was getting a look at them. Good. Mostly we were just floating with the current now. She looked up at me when I came in.

"How do we steer?" She looked a little shocked, like she'd jut bitten off more than she could chew… She didn't even have confidence in herself. How was I supposed to have confidence in her?

I crossed to her side, and grabbed the lever nearest to me. "This turns us right." I pulled it down toward me, and looked out the glass window on the far side of the ship. I shifted it back to its old position, and pulled the lever beside it down. "This turns us left." I pushed it back up. "When neither of them are down, we go forward. When you pull them both down, we go backward." I moved past her to the other side of the control board. "This lever controls how fast we move. Pushed to the bottom, we go at our fastest. Left at the top, we're barely moving." I turned to the engine that was to the side and opened a hatch. "If you firebend into here, it gives us enough energy to keep moving."

I pretty much ignored her after that, controlling the furnace mostly, while letting her get a hang of the levers. This was brand new technology, I counted myself lucky to have gotten it so easily.

She started off with rough movements, and at times the ship jerked, but eventually she got the hang of it and could move the boat as easily as one of my crew.

I tried to empty my mind, but I felt unable to do so. Instead, I reviewed everything I hoped to do. How could I take him out with minimal energy and damage done? In the end there were too many questions. My thought process was made ragged and disconnected. Maybe I should just play it by ear and do my best when the situation came up.

Suddenly, I felt our course change. I looked out the huge window and realized we were nearing an island, there was a temple at the top. That had to be where the avatar was headed. Wasn't this a special temple?

Yeah, it was. It was a temple to the Avatar, one that avatar Roku built. I remembered that much from studying history. Amazing that anything stuck, it was such a dry, boring class…

I cleared my mind up again. Obviously, he was trying to contact Roku somehow. I'd have to stop him before he did, or he might get powerful like he did that time at the South Pole. The one time I'd underestimated him.

"We're here." The Girl whispered quietly. "Now what?"

"I'm going up." I announced, starting out the door. "Don't come after me. If something goes wrong, try to keep the boat hidden."

"Good luck."

I ignored her and continued up.

The climbing was steep, but not too bad. I had to change course to avoid magma flowing down from near where the temple was built up. Suddenly, I realized how late it was. It was almost evening…. How had that happened? Had the trip really been that long?

I heaved myself up to the top, not bothering to look too closely at the building. I just had to get the avatar after all. But in the back of my mind, I took note that it was a very flowery, official looking building.

That being said, I expected someone to be there. But there wasn't anyone. The halls stretched out in many, many directions. It felt like a nightmare. The idea of trying to find the avatar raced through my mind, looking like a more and more daunting task. I started down the most official looking hallway. Probably this was the way he would head to try to find Roku.

My guess paid off. Soon I could hear voices. So there were people here after all.

"Open the doors immediately, before he contacts avatar Roku!" An old man shouted.

I felt my heart skip a few beats. Was he already inside? I stealthily entered the room, watching as the five old men I had expected to see before (not like I knew them or how many there would be, but still) shot fire at a huge door, and into the pipes that would unlock it. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something move. That something was the avatar. So it was all a trick… I decided that I should grab him before anything else happened.

The doors opened, revealing one of the avatar's pets. Just as I thought.

"It's the avatar's lemur!" the same old man announced. "He must have crawled through the pipes! We've been tricked!" The old man gave a loud shriek. In that moment, I bounded toward the kid, and had him in a tight grip before he knew what hit him. He tried to resist at first, but I managed to dodge him.

There was the sound of scuffling, and then, another old man shouted, "Now Aang!"

They must have dispatched the rest of the men. They had no way of knowing I'd gotten the avatar first.

"Aang, now's your chance!"

I dragged the kid out into the open, about to take the stairs down. "The avatar's coming with me." I stated, matter of factly. While they were holding the men down, there was no way they could resist.

It didn't take long. Soon the kids, lemur, and traitor were all overpowered.

Just in case something happened though… "Close the doors. Quickly!"

I felt a sudden surge of adrenaline. I had done it. I was right up to the point of winning. In just a short time, everything would be put to rights…

I was so excited, I didn't notice the signals until too late. So when the kid tripped me and threw me back over his shoulder with a quick arm movement (no doubt assisted by airbending), I was easily knocked off balance, and fell down the stairs.

He moved quickly. I just registered that his girlfriend yelled at him to "Go!" when I hit the last one. There was no way for me to get to him in time, but I tore up the stairs as fast as I could, and was just in time to see him sail through the closing doors. A blinding blue light flashed from everywhere at once, and I felt a new surge of desperation. It seemed that the men, Fire Sages as I now remembered they were called, didn't want him in either. Although our reasons were probably different. I didn't care who he contacted as long as I got him in the end, but he might get extra power, and this was something I couldn't allow. For them, it seemed serious, but in a different way. The five of us firebended at the pipes.

Nothing.

We tried it again. Still nothing.

"Ugh! Why isn't it working? It's sealed shut!" I scowled, frustrated with the complexity of these doors.

"It must have been the light. Avatar Roku doesn't want us inside."

I remembered the blinding blue light, and couldn't help but agree it made sense. But it was so infuriating! Why did everything work out so easily for this guy? No, no I couldn't get pessimistic. We had time to wait, and also his friends. Maybe he'd give himself up again in exchange for freeing them. They seemed harmless enough, so I didn't really care about that anyway.

In the meantime…

The other sages took the traitor from the pillar where they'd chained up the avatar's friends.

"Why did you help the avatar?" I questioned roughly. Weren't the sages supposed to work for the firelord? At least, all the others were…

The old man met my gaze unwaveringly. "Because it was once the sage's duty. It is still our duty!" I was about to respond when a chilling sound met my ears.

Clap. Clap. Clap.

A sarcastic applaud. There was only one person I could think of that would enter like this… I stiffened, not turning around. Hoping I was wrong…

"What a moving and heartfelt performance. I'm certain the Firelord will understand when you explain why you betrayed him."

I turned around in horror, realizing that I had been right. His face was an awful state of affairs. That arrogant smirk I hated so much, one eyebrow raised… He had come to take over again, and not just that, but he was flanked with at least twenty men. More than enough to do whatever he liked at this point.

"-And Prince Zuko. It was a noble effort, but your little smokescreen didn't work."

I could feel my eyebrows drawing close together, twisting. The patronizing pig…

"Two traitors in one day," he continued. "The Firelord will be pleased." The ease with which he said everything and took over was nearly nauseating. I realized that deep down I knew that this was what was going to happen. Maybe that was the real reason for my haste.

One of his guards approached and pulled my arms behind my back. He was older, probably stronger than me. I had already lost everything, so I saw no reason to resist the flare of temper that was making it's way through me.

"You're too late Zhou!" I yelled out in a half mocking tone. "The avatar's inside and the doors are sealed!"

I had hoped to get a rise out of him, especially for dropping his rank off the end, but he kept his calm, collected state easily.

"No matter. Sooner or later, he has to come out."

**Author's Note:**

**Okay, so this is my first time doing it, the switching perspectives thing. I don't plan on alternating chapters, and I'm hoping that not saying "I'm changing perspectives now" makes it seem more professional. Apologies for typos, my proofreader is sick right now, and I felt like the finished product was okay. This shouldn't happen a lot, I'm thinking of only putting Zuko's perspective up about every five chapters. Still, let's face it, there's a lot that Rong Yu doesn't know about him and what he does, the only way to get it in there is to hear Zuko say it for himself. :) I hope you all enjoyed this!**


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